Winter Driving

[asfafa]

Hi All

What with the snow being forecasted towards the end of the week and weekend, I'd be interested to hear from people as to how their Priuses coped with the weather.

I'm starting to get jittery about it

Are automatics more difficult to handle than manual (more use of the brake, car creeping forward, etc.) in such weather?

Any advice gratefully received!

paul

[can7ona]

Hi there,

We've had a couple of Automatic Rav4s in the past and neither were a problem during winter so I don't think the Prius will be difficult to handle on that alone.

However, we've only had our Prius for a few weeks and already I feel uneasy with the cornering. I find the traction control is way to eager to kick in and has caused a couple of near misses already! Having spoken to Toyota they assure me that it is "a safety characteristic" of the car! True as that may be I'm certainly not looking forward to cornering when the roads get icy!

[posing]

Hi there,

We've had a couple of Automatic Rav4s in the past and neither were a problem during winter so I don't think the Prius will be difficult to handle on that alone.

However, we've only had our Prius for a few weeks and already I feel uneasy with the cornering. I find the traction control is way to eager to kick in and has caused a couple of near misses already! Having spoken to Toyota they assure me that it is "a safety characteristic" of the car! True as that may be I'm certainly not looking forward to cornering when the roads get icy!

←

Being a car nonce, can you explain how the 'safety' feature caused near misses?

[can7ona]

Hi there,

We've had a couple of Automatic Rav4s in the past and neither were a problem during winter so I don't think the Prius will be difficult to handle on that alone.

However, we've only had our Prius for a few weeks and already I feel uneasy with the cornering. I find the traction control is way to eager to kick in and has caused a couple of near misses already! Having spoken to Toyota they assure me that it is "a safety characteristic" of the car! True as that may be I'm certainly not looking forward to cornering when the roads get icy!

←

Being a car nonce, can you explain how the 'safety' feature caused near misses?

←

LOL... yeah I realise that sounds a bit daft... basically a couple of times I've made a right turn on a busy country lane the traction control has kicked in causing the car to sort of stop-start while the car approaching hasn't slowed because (s/)he thinks I'll make it (as I did!)... When I described the event to the Toyota dealer they said it was the traction control being sensitive for safety reasons!

[Braindead]

Last year I tried to provoke the Prius to misbehave in the snow on a hotel carpark. I failed. It behaved very well.

The usual techniques work well on snowy roads....everything has to be gentle.

[priusy]

Hi,

I have had a 05T-spirit for 6months now and this is the first winter for my prius. I have been experiencing several non starter in the morning. :( It is as if the Battery is flat. Some of the display comes on but is weak. It is always when it is cold and in the morning. No sound. Leave it for a few minutes ( to call the AA!) and and when i try it again, it starts. :) The Battery reads full (nearly) when the engine starts and everything is tick a boo. Anyone suffers this problem?

The car will have to carry out the 1st service soon and would hope the dealer could sort it out then. I bought the toyota for reliability and would be interested in seeing how the priuses are doing.

[KMO]

What do you mean by "not starting" exactly? Did get the "READY" indicator on the dash? Did you get any other warning lights? Could you select a gear? Would it move?

If the display is weak, it sounds like the HV system isn't activated. Did you not have your foot on the brake, so it went into ACC or IG-ON mode instead of READY? Maybe the brake switch is faulty (some early Mk IIs had this fault and needed a recall, but it shouldn't apply to a 6-month old one).

[Braindead]

I'm in my second winter and never had this problem. If the display is dim it may be that there is a bad connection to the 12v Battery or the 12v Battery is low.

I think the HV Battery actually turns the engine over to start it but the car's control sytems are powered by the 12v circuit.

Also, I wouldn't expect the car to try and start for up several seconds after the READY prompt comes up....that's assuming you get the READY prompt.

[priusy]

There is no Ready at all. It is similar to a flat Battery in a normal car apart from that fact that it is silent. I cannot even change the gear thus jump starting is out of the question.

The starter light does light up but nothing else work. The monitor does not light up. Could it be a faulty alternator or 12V Battery?

[KMO]

Can you be even more precise? What exactly do you see, with what actions?

Starting with the car off, with your foot on the brake, and pressing the power button, what do you get? Does the dash light up? If so, what lights? What colour light do you see on the power button? It should light up briefly while booting (yellow, I think), then go off as the READY light on the dash comes on.

If you press the button repeatedly (slowly), what happens? One possibility is that it doesn't think you've got the brake pedal depressed, so it's just doing the OFF->ACC(green light)->IG-ON(yellow light)->OFF cycle. Do your brake lights work?

To boot the car, the 12V Battery, needs enough juice to power the computers through the boot sequence, then a set of 3 relays connects the HV system up to the inverter/converter. The converter then converts the output from the HV Battery into 12V to power the 12V systems (everything in the car apart from the hybrid drive runs off 12V) and charge the 12V Battery.

Relatively little power is needed to get the car into READY. It could be that you have a really duff 12V battery. If it was once totally discharged somehow, then it may be permanently damaged, and unable to retain its charge. There have been occasions of the battery being discharged while at the dealer, and thus being faulty when delivered.

The 12V battery should last something like 3-4 weeks if the car is left unused. A faulty one may only last days.

[priusy]

Without the foot on the brake, nothing happens on the screen only a orange light on the start. The speedo is on but dim.

With the foot on the brake, same thing as above.

Cannot release hand brake, nothing on the screen, just dim display.

Even switching the alarm off and on, sounds like the Battery is weak.

If i leave it for a while (so far), the car could start and the HV Battery reads nearly full.

Duff 12V Battery? How can i check if it is duff?

Cheers.

[Braindead]

Most garages can check the Battery state for free.

Before you do that I'd get it back to a Toyota dealer as it must still be under warranty. Also, you may end up buying a Battery and find there is a fault elsewhere.

[priusy]

Most garages can check the battery state for free.

Before you do that I'd get it back to a Toyota dealer as it must still be under warranty. Also, you may end up buying a battery and find there is a fault elsewhere.

Cheers. Will wait for the 10k service which should be in a month or so.

[priusy]

Prius went dead again this weekend. Left it for 2 days and the Battery would not start the car. Checked the Battery in the last service but "nothing" wrong.

Anyone suffering the same thing with the current 2005 model? I am afaird that if i leave it for 2 weeks at the airport carpark, it will not start when i return.